A point gained for Bristol City on the road at Swansea City but the Robins must be more clinical

-Credit: (Image: Athena Pictures/Getty Images)
-Credit: (Image: Athena Pictures/Getty Images)


Watching the game in the stands at a wet and windy Swansea.com stadium, I think I had a slightly different feeling of Bristol City's 1-1 draw with Swansea City than those who were sat at home in the dry and warm, watching the game on Sky TV. Maybe my feeling was influenced by some of the noise in the crowd, the constant chants from one fan to get into them and for Liam Manning to sort it out. Having been kept behind after the game for a period by South Wales' finest police officers and spending more time getting out of the car park and then driving home, I decided to listen to what Radio Bristol presenter Ed Hadwin, pundit Gary Owers and fans who phoned in, thought of the game. I watched highlights of the game when I got home and thought I would sleep on it before writing this week’s column.

Immediately after the game, I thought it was an okay performance and that a point was a fair result but having digested everything I listened to and watched, I think it was a better performance than I had first thought. Swansea are a decent footballing side under their manager Luke Williams and even Williams himself came out after the game and in his post-match interview said that a point was the least that Bristol (that’s Bristol City, Luke) deserved.

Stats are stats and as I so often write in this column, the only stat that really counts at the end of the game is how many goals you have scored compared to your opponent. Whilst Swansea enjoyed most of the possession of the football, we did have 15 total shots, compared to their seven, with six on target compared to their two and three clear-cut chances compared to their one. We did create chances and despite what one of the callers on the post-match Radio Bristol phone in thought, I agree with Ed that we are creating more opportunities than last season and like Ed I do feel that we have improved and are improving. This isn’t a happy clapper column, of course we must get better with our end product and fundamentally score more goals but as Ed was at pains to say, you have to create chances in order to score goals and we are at least doing that.

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It was a decent game of football to watch on Sunday. I thought that we started brightly and certainly finished the game the stronger of the two teams and if any side looked likely to get a winner it was us. The bit in the middle was a little up and down. Certainly, in the first half I didn’t think we looked hungry for the ball. Swansea pressed better than us and appeared to win most of the 50/50 duals. They passed around us at times, with City not concentrating and allowing their runners to go. Unusually, George Tanner was coming out second best in his one-on-one battle against the Swansea City wide player Eom Ji-Sung with most of the attacks coming down his side. Haydon Roberts was also struggling to have an influence when in possession.

We could have opened the scoring following a good move involving Yu Hirakawa, Sinclair Armstrong and a shot from Scott Twine but it was the Welsh side took the lead on the quarter of an hour when Ben Cabango side footed the ball in following a corner.

Look, make no mistake Max O’Leary is clearly impeded and therefore fouled by Swansea's Ronald but for me Max must be stronger both mentally and physically there. Max knows that he is being held and must push Ronald out of the way and draw the referee's attention to it. It should have been a foul and I’m sure that if VAR was in the Championship the goal would have been ruled out. I can’t blame Max but I hope he learns from it, it was all just too easy.

Liam Manning believed that Max O'Leary was fouled in the build-up to Swansea City's goal -Credit:Athena Pictures/Getty Images
Liam Manning believed that Max O'Leary was fouled in the build-up to Swansea City's goal -Credit:Athena Pictures/Getty Images

Twine was more interested in his man than the ball and Max Bird was blocked off, allowing Cabango a free run. Manning talked after the game about referees telling clubs before the start of the season that holding in the box and blocking players deliberately would be dealt with but it clearly isn’t and as I say I just feel that Max needed to push Ronald out of his way. He needs to be physically more aggressive in that situation.

A minute later, we had a shot from Yu deflected wide and from the resultant corner, Jason Knight should have perhaps got his header on target but the ball went just wide and there was a question as to whether Armstrong should have dived to head the ball rather than try and steer it in with the outside of his right foot.

From looking like we were getting back into the game we so nearly went two behind when Zak Vyner took too long on the ball and his attempted pass was closed down and the deflected block beat O’Leary but thankfully the spin on the ball caused it to hit the post and go out for a goal kick. Max did make a good save a bit later, getting his arms up quick to a Franco shot.

We should have levelled the scores in the second half after a break from Anis Mehmeti who had a good game and was many fans, including ours on the 3 Peaps In A Podcast, Man of the Match. Mehmeti broke through the Swansea press and released Sinclair Armstrong. The Big Man’s first touch perhaps needed to be more inside and whilst he did the right thing in opening his body out; to try and find the far corner, he didn’t get his angle or power right and it was a comfortable save. Armstrong is going to cause sides problems with his pace and physicality but he has to improve his conversion of chances ratio. We have to remember that he is still young and many thought that a certain Antoine Semenyo would never make it at this level and just look at him now scoring goals in the Premier League.

Manning made changes just before the hour bringing on Cameron Pring for Haydon Roberts, although this one seemed enforced due to an injury to Haydon and also bringing on Mark Sykes for Yu and Joe Williams for Bird. All three substitutes made an impact. Mark Sykes in particular impressed, having for me his best 30 minutes in a City shirt this season.

It was possibly a close call between Bird and Knight as to who Williams would replace, thankfully the head coach got his decision right and was rewarded with Knight’s bullet header from a Twine corner to give us a share of the spoils. The header was that good, I’d initially thought it had come from centre-half Luke McNally. As they said on Sky, it was a captain's goal from Knight.

Mehmeti was causing the Swans defence all sorts of headaches and Sykes came close with a header from an Anis cross, which could so easily have been spilled into the path of Nahki Wells. We finished the stronger side and with better decision making we could have and probably should have sealed the win.

Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast average player ratings were Max O’Leary 6, George Tanner 5.5, Zak Vyner 6, Luke McNally 6, Haydon Roberts 5.5, Jason Knight 7, Max Bird 5.5, Anis Mehmeti 7.5 *MotM, Yu Hirakawa 6, Scott Twine 6 and Sinclair Armstrong 6.

For the substitutes who must play a minimum of 20 minutes (including injury time) we went Nahki Wells 6.5, Mark Sykes 7, Cameron Pring 6 and Joe Williams 6. A game average player rating of 6.13. That’s an overall season to date average player rating of 5.92.

For Manning it’s a 7, credit where it is due, Liam started with the line-up that most Bristol City fans would have picked and his substitutions had a positive impact. The game rating was 7, as I say any point away from home in the Championship is decent.

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